• by Danielle Oster , Yesterday

Operation Smile, a global nonprofit focused on addressing gaps in surgical and health care access, particularly for cleft repair, launched a new “Badges of Hope” campaign that aims to redefine how audiences view surgical scars.

Developed in partnership with creative agency 72andSunny, the campaign uses cinematic video, photography, and a global digital activation to position surgical scars as “Badges of Love,” symbolizing “strength and the human right to safe surgery realized” rather than marks to conceal.

“A surgical scar means you were able to access care. And in too many parts of the world, that is still a privilege -- not a right,” Operation Smile Co-Founder and CEO Kathy Magee said in a statement. ‘

The campaign centers around a 75-second anthem PSA video and  six 30-second videosthat tell the stories of Operation Smile patients from across the globe. “Badges of Love” is running across social media and streaming TV.

“Two-thirds of the world does not have access to safe surgery. It's a statistic so overwhelming it demands a pause,” said Matt Jarvis, Chairman, 72andSunny, said in a statement, citing a statistic from The Lancet Commissions Global Surgery 2030. “Reframing scars as something that went right offers a new perspective, one where the power of surgery to change lives becomes something we want everyone to have access to.

The campaign promotes Operation Smile’s Operation 100 initiative, which will train 100 surgical teams across 100 hospitals, providing them with the skills and resources to safely provide surgery within a two-hour range for “nearly 500 million people” globally.

“For too long, patients have traveled for days only to be turned away. Operation 100 is about changing that story, and ‘Badges of Hope’ is how we show the world what that change looks like,” Magee added.